Obituaries

Leslie Tweed King served on many boards, including ArtReach and Think 360 Arts. (Courtesy of King family)

Ron King misses so many things about his wife, Leslie Tweed King: her intelligence, compassion, sunny disposition, love for animals and her never-ending wanderlust.

Most of all, he misses her "bulletproof optimism." It helped sustain them through two bouts with cancer: the Stage 1 invasive ductile breast cancer diagnosed in November and the Stage 1 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma discovered in April.

Yet neither those nor the expert treatment she received at Swedish Medical Center could save her from the massive stroke she suffered at her Denver home June 29, just days after she completed her third and final round of chemotherapy for the lymphoma. She was 61 when she died July 4.

Born at Denver's St. Joseph Hospital on Aug. 21, 1951, and raised in the Columbine Valley near Littleton, Leslie Tweed decided early on that she wanted to become an art teacher. Inspired by her mother, a pastel artist, she dreamed of sharing her love of color, shapes and technique with all who cared to learn from her.

But about a year into her studies at the University of Northern Colorado, she determined that teaching was best left to others, so she switched gears. She graduated from UNC in 1973 with a degree in fine arts but went to work as a banker.

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Her 40-year career began in the credit-card department of the former United Bank; she was vice president and regional marketing director for Northern Trust at the time of her death.

A memorial will be held at Hudson Gardens on Sept. 6. The 6 p.m. service will be followed by a reception. In addition to her husband, the CEO of Vanguard Communications, she is survived by her mother, Marjorie Wilson Tweed, and brothers John and Gary Tweed.

"Leslie and I met in the summer of 1994, two months after I moved to Denver from Knoxville, Tenn.," Ron King recalls. "We were both in our early 40s and divorced, wondering if we'd ever remarry."

Friends had invited them to dinner at Las Margaritas, and "we spent the whole evening laughing. I laughed so hard that night that the next day my jaw hurt," he said.

"From that very first day, life with Leslie was practically effortless," he said. "In fact, it was she who asked me out on our first real date."

As self-reliant and well-organized as she was compassionate, Leslie King was "the only woman I've ever known to own a stepladder and a post-hole digger," Ron King said. "She could handle it all herself."

Kathy Seidel, president of Northern Trust Colorado, was Leslie's boss, colleague and friend for 20 years. She remembers her as "a truly selfless person, someone who loved animals and had a profound concern for those who had less."

"She was dismayed by the diminution of arts education and did her best to turn that around," said Think 360 Arts managing director Jane Hansberry. "The things she supported were things in which she believed so strongly. She had heartfelt reasons for everything. Plus, she was just so darn cool."

Her friends were legion.

"Ever since I met Leslie, I have marveled at her popularity and community connections," Ron King said. "I've often felt like President Kennedy when he said he would become famous as the man who accompanied Jackie Kennedy to Paris."

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